Cry Assassin by Loki Renard Read Free Book Online Page B

up, her eyes moist with tears of hurt. “I'm sorry,” she apologized quickly, though she did not really know what she was apologizing for.
    His smile was as masterful as it was reassuring. “If I do not wish for them to take you, they will not take you,” he declared. The words were boastful, but the tone he delivered them in was not. He spoke as if he were speaking a simple truth, as if the words themselves could be etched in stone.
    “Don't get too cocky,” she muttered, remembering the men Vlad had sent. They were rough, terrible men who enjoyed her fear and had seemed to feed on even the small pain and discomfort inflicted on her when they taped her to the chair. She'd wondered if she were about to die, until the clean cut stranger with the commanding presence entered the room. The stranger who had turned out to be her unlikely savior, who even now protected her in the sanctum of his home.
    A short laugh echoed around the kitchen. “Oh kitten, you do not know me well yet,” Kirk said. “Soon you will learn never to doubt what I tell you.” His laughter floated away as his expression grew serious once more. “But first, we have work to do.”
     
    * * *
     
    Kirk had a week to prepare for the shit storm that would await them when Vlad realized he was not getting his money or the woman. He had less time to prepare for the consequences of the extreme disobedience he intended to enact against the Commander. The Commander especially would not like what Kirk was about to do, not in the slightest.
    Mulling his options over in his mind, Kirk watched his now willing captive as she drank her coffee in short sips. She was so delicate, a perfect flower. Could she do what she needed to do to survive? Yes. She'd had no qualms about threatening him with his own weapon. He could have punished her for that, but he had not. Even then he'd had an inkling that the harder side of her needed to be nurtured. He would punish her for disobedience, but for having nerve? Never.
    “Listen Evelyn,” he began.
    She cut him off with a wave of her hand. “Eve, please. Only my father calls me Evelyn.”
    “Eve,” he nodded. “Things could get worse before they get better. You're going to have to be strong.”
    A spark of interest danced in her eyes. She had sensed that there was a plan. “What are we going to do?”
    There was no point sitting around waiting for the Russians to find them. There was no point in staying here where his handlers knew how to find him. They had a few days up their sleeves and they had to make them count. He grinned wickedly, brimming with the daring of this new adventure which would put him at odds with both the lawful world and the underworld. “We're getting a six day head start.”
    The announcement was the beginning of a flurry of activity. Kirk was a master of the quick exit and most of the things he needed were close at hand. Eve only had a handful of possessions in the first place and within the hour they were on the road with a bunch of cash he kept stashed away for a rainy day and all the fire power he could put his hands on.
    Eve was quiet when they got on the road. He wondered if she was perhaps regretting putting her trust in him. She was probably just scared, he reasoned. She had good reason to be scared. He couldn't blame her. “It's going to be fine,” he reassured her, reaching across and squeezing her hand.
    She looked across at him, her brown eyes filled with a sudden mistrust. “Why are you helping me?” The question was sudden, direct. He sighed with the weight of it. There were a lot of reasons why he was helping her. Some of them came from a place of chivalry, others didn't. All he really knew is that the idea of seeing Evelyn taken by the Russians, knowing what awaited her made his stomach churn. He removed his hand from hers and returned it to the steering wheel.
     “I've done a lot of bad things in my life, Eve. If there's a hell, I'm going there.” She nodded, seeming to